United States President George Bush demanded that there be ”consequences” for Iran after it ignored a United Nations Security Council deadline on Thursday to suspend part of its nuclear programme. Washington wants UN sanctions imposed on Tehran as quickly as possible, but the Security Council is seriously divided.

A document presented to President Thabo Mbeki by the Eastern Cape provincial executive committee has painted a grim picture of leadership paralysis, political infighting and rebellion in the ranks of the African National Congress that could thwart the crucial provincial conference later this month. ”The ANC has never experienced such high levels of ill-discipline, defiance [and] infighting within members of the ANC,” the document says.

South African support for Iran held firm as a United Nations deadline for Iran to suspend its uranium enrichment programme expired, potentially triggering sanctions by the UN Security Council or the United States and its allies. A flurry of diplomatic activity followed the visit to Pretoria by Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottak

A row erupted at the South African Democratic Teachers Union conference recently, with heated claims that the African National Congress top brass barred the party’s deputy president, Jacob Zuma, from addressing delegates. The uproar was a further sign of the intense power struggles in the union movement two weeks before the ninth congress of the Congress of South African Trade Unions.